"I don't know," said Winnie. "I should think it must have been difficult for a Roman baby to learn to talk. Miss Harper says it's good mental exercise for us, and we must try to use our brains." "Mine will wear out," said Avis. "They never were very strong, to begin with. I always forget everything I have learnt the term before; I do indeed. I knew the whole of 'Lycidas' by heart last year, and I can't remember a line of it now. Miss Rowe says my head is like a sieve. You ought to like Caesar, at any rate, Cissie, because it's all about soldiers." "I don't care for Roman soldiers," said Cissie; "at least, not in Caesar, though I rather like them in stories. I love the one in _Puck of Pook's Hill_, who had to set out for the great wall; he was a perfect dear. If Rudyard Kipling could have written that wretched _De Bello Gallico_ it would have been so different, and so much nicer." "I should think it would!" said Enid laughing. "Much too nice for us. They choose the driest books possible for schools. Patty, why don't you grumble too? It's quite aggravating to see you looking so complacent." "I grumble over mathematics, at any rate," said Patty. "But not over Latin?" "No, I rather like it." "How can you like it?" "I don't know why, but I do." "There's nothing to like." "Yes, there is; it's rather fun to try and turn the words into sentences." "You're not very good at French translation, and yet you always make sense out of Caesar. I can't think how you manage it," said Avis. "Ah, that's my secret!" answered Patty. "I shan't give it away, or else perhaps you'd all do as well." "Is it really a secret?" asked Beatrice Wynne, who had joined the group. "Of course it is," said Patty mysteriously. "One of those things you can't explain and wouldn't if you could." "Oh, do tell me!" implored Beatrice. "No!" said Patty, shaking her head solemnly. "A secret is a secret, and you mustn't ask questions." "I'll find out some day," returned Beatrice. "I love discovering secrets." "Don't be too sure of mine," said Patty. "You won't find it out, because----" But here she shook her head with the air of a sphinx, and, leaving her sentence unfinished, took up her music-case and went to practise.